Bardonecchia With Kids: Ski Areas, Prices & Day Trip From Turin

Ninety minutes on a train from Turin and you’re at the foot of a mountain that hosted the Olympics.

Bardonecchia took every snowboarding event of the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics — both halfpipes, both parallel giant slaloms, both snowboard crosses, 187 competitors from 24 nations across eleven days in February. That’s why a village this size has 23 lifts and 100 km of piste. And it’s why it works so well as a family day trip: the infrastructure is far bigger than the place.

We’ve been going for years, usually with grandparents in tow, and it’s become the ski day we recommend most often to families who aren’t sure their children will take to it.

Quick verdict: Bardonecchia with kids

90 km from Turin — 1h30 by train from Porta Nuova, about 1h10 by car. Genuinely doable in a day.
54% of the pistes are graded beginner. That’s unusually high for a resort with 100 km of terrain, and it’s the single most useful fact here if you’re bringing children who are learning.
Under-6s ski free, and a child pass for 6–7s starts around €26.
Three ski areas, two of them linked, with a free ski bus to the third.
There’s a big playground near the ski area — which is the reason this works with children who don’t ski at all.
It’s a rental town, not a resort town. Lots of apartments, not many permanent residents. That’s good for space and bad for atmosphere in the off weeks.

Where is Bardonecchia and how do you get there from Turin?

Bardonecchia sits in Piedmont, in the Metropolitan City of Turin, right up near the French border. That administrative detail matters more than it sounds: it’s why getting there is so easy.

By train — the one I’d choose with children. About 1h30 from Torino Porta Nuova, roughly €10–20 each way. The line runs up the Susa Valley and you spend the whole journey looking at mountain villages, which does half the job of entertaining everyone before you’ve even arrived. No parking, no chains, no mountain driving.

By car. About 90 km and 1h10 on a clear day, up the A32 through the Susa Valley.

By bus. FlixBus runs the route roughly twice a day, around 1h05, from about €7–12 . Stops at Oulx on the way.

The three ski areas explained

This is the part most English-language guides get vague about, and it’s genuinely useful to understand before you buy a pass, because the three areas are not equally suited to a family.

Colomion–Les Arnauds and Melezet — the family side

These two are connected, and they’re where you want to be with children.

The starting point is Campo Smith at 1,300 m, right in the heart of the resort — you can walk to it. From there the lifts take you up to a high point of 2,400 m, where you’re skiing above the treeline.

The character of this side is wide runs snaking down through the trees. Sheltered, forgiving, and the kind of terrain a nervous eight-year-old can make progress on without feeling exposed.

Jafferau — the one for the views

The third area, about five minutes from the centre, reached by a free ski bus.

Jafferau is mostly open runs rather than tree-lined ones, going up to a high point of 2,800 m, with views across the surrounding mountains that are worth the bus ride on their own.

With small children I’d stay on the Campo Smith side. With confident skiers, or if you want the best view of the day, take the bus up to Jafferau.

The numbers


Total slopes	~100 km across 43 runs
Beginner	54%
Intermediate	38%
Advanced	8%
Lifts	23
Altitude range	1,312 – 2,800 m

That 54% beginner figure is the reason to bring a learning family here rather than to a bigger name. Plenty of resorts have more terrain; very few have that much of it graded easy.

Lift pass prices

2025/26 published rates. Confirm before you go — resorts revise them each autumn.

Pass	Low season	Peak
Adult (18–64)	€38	€58
Youth (8–17)	€32	€42
Child (6–7)	€26	€32
Under 6	Free	Free
Half-day (from 13:00)	€32	€40
3-day	€105	€135

Two things worth knowing.

Under-6s ski free. If you have a preschooler, that changes the arithmetic of the whole trip.

The half-day pass from 13:00 is genuinely useful here. If you’re coming up on the morning train from Turin, you arrive around midday anyway. A half-day pass at €32 plus the playground in the late afternoon is a complete day out, and it’s what I’d book for a first visit with children who’ve never skied.

The playground near the ski area

This is the thing I’d tell another parent first, and it’s the reason we keep going back.

There’s a large playground near the ski area, and finding it changed how our family does Bardonecchia. On one visit my husband took his snowboard for the day and the rest of us — my sister, my parents, me and the kids — went straight there. The children were so happy we could barely drag them away for lunch at the bar.

If you’ve got a family where one adult skis and the others don’t, or children too young for lessons, this is what makes a Bardonecchia day work instead of turning into three hours of waiting in a café.

Is Bardonecchia good for families with kids who don’t ski?

Yes — better than most resorts, and here’s the honest reasoning.

The village is compact and walkable, so you’re not stranded at a lift base. There’s the playground. There are bars and restaurants at Campo Smith rather than a car park. And because it’s a day trip rather than a week, nobody has to commit to skiing to justify the trip.

The first year we went we only skied. The year we finally walked around the village properly was the year it clicked — and that’s the visit I’d recommend copying. Ski or sled in the morning, walk the village in the afternoon.

Who I’d send here: families from Turin or staying in Turin who want one snow day; families with children roughly 3–12; families where the adults’ skiing levels don’t match.

Who I’d send elsewhere: anyone wanting a full ski week — Bardonecchia is a strong day and a decent weekend, but 100 km goes quickly if you can actually ski. And anyone chasing après-ski atmosphere, for the reason in the next section.

The honest bit: it’s a rental town

Bardonecchia is a small village that has grown a great deal through tourism, and you can see it. A lot of the houses are holiday rentals with nobody living in them, and outside the busy weeks that gives the place a slightly empty feeling.

For a family this is mostly a plus: apartments are easy to find, they’re roomy, and they have kitchens, which solves the mountain-food problem. But if you’re picturing a lively alpine village with a life of its own, adjust that expectation.

Our best day there

The best part of one visit had nothing to do with the kids.

My husband took me up to the highest point to watch the sun set over the mountains. It was the first time I’d done that, and we were celebrating fifteen years together. We’ve been travelling as a family for a long time now, and that half hour at the top is still one of the ones I remember.

If you get a clear afternoon, go up for it. The lifts and the light both work in your favour in January.

What we’d do differently

Buy the half-day pass. Arriving on the late-morning train and paying for a full day is money left on the mountain.

Find the playground first, not last. We stumbled on it on a later visit. Knowing where it was on day one would have changed our first trip.

Take the train. We’ve done both, and the train removes the two things that make a family ski day stressful: parking and snow driving.

Eat before, or bring food. Bar prices at the base are what bar prices at the base always are.

Go on a weekday if you can. It’s a Turin day trip, which means weekends are when everyone else has the same idea.

More of Turin and Piedmont with kids

More snow with kids:

Frequently asked questions about Bardonecchia with kids

How far is Bardonecchia from Turin?

About 90 km, and roughly 1 hour 30 minutes by train from Torino Porta Nuova, which makes it one of the easiest day trips from the city with children. By car it is about 1 hour 10 minutes up the Susa Valley, and FlixBus runs the route roughly twice a day in around 1 hour 5 minutes. The train is the easiest option with a family, because it removes both parking and mountain driving.

Is Bardonecchia good for families and beginners?

Yes. Around 54% of Bardonecchia’s roughly 100 km of pistes are graded beginner, which is unusually high for a resort of that size, and children under 6 ski free. The village is compact and walkable, there is a large playground near the ski area for children who are not skiing, and the bars and restaurants are at the slope base rather than in a car park.

How much is a lift pass in Bardonecchia?

On recent published rates an adult day pass ran from about €38 in low season to €58 at peak, with youth aged 8 to 17 at €32 to €42 and children aged 6 to 7 at €26 to €32. Children under 6 ski free. A half-day pass from 1pm costs roughly €32 to €40, which suits families arriving on the late-morning train from Turin. Confirm the current season’s tariff before you travel.

What are the three ski areas in Bardonecchia?

Colomion–Les Arnauds and Melezet are connected and both start from Campo Smith at 1,300 m in the centre of the resort, with lifts up to 2,400 m and wide runs through the trees — this is the side that suits families. Jafferau is separate, about five minutes from the centre with a free ski bus, and is mostly open runs reaching 2,800 m with the best views of the three.

Is there anything to do in Bardonecchia if you don’t ski?

Yes, and this is where it works better than most resorts for mixed families. There is a large playground near the ski area, the village itself is compact and walkable, and there are bars and restaurants at the slope base, so non-skiers are not stuck waiting somewhere unpleasant. We have spent a full day there with children who never put skis on and nobody was bored.

Did Bardonecchia host the Olympics?

Yes. Bardonecchia hosted all six snowboarding events at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics between 12 and 23 February 2006 — men’s and women’s halfpipe, parallel giant slalom and snowboard cross — with 187 competitors from 24 nations. It is a large part of why a village this size has 23 lifts and around 100 km of piste.

Can you do Bardonecchia as a day trip from Turin?

Easily, and it is how we usually do it. Take the morning train from Torino Porta Nuova, buy a half-day pass from 1pm since you arrive around midday anyway, and be back in Turin for dinner. Weekdays are noticeably quieter than weekends, when much of Turin has the same idea.